I don't think most of my pals know this, but I have been interested in water issues for a number of years. It was a slow evolution to the specific interest, since where and when I grew up, the only water issues were making sure the PCB level in lake Michigan weren’t too high to swim. That’s the mid-70s or so, on the south end of the lake. When I got older, and studied the Indiana Dunes biosphere in more detail in school, I was amazed to find out how slowly water circulates in the southern part (MY part) of the lake. Stories like acid rain, the constant flooding of the Little Calumet River, the erosion of the Northern Indiana beaches, and the demise of commercial fisheries in Michigan City meant that water issues were a constant drumbeat in the background of my life.

But it was just background, because when you live around Lake Michigan, you never really worry about having water, just about whether it’s clean or not. I did my qualifying SCUBA dive in an East Chicago quarry, with steel mills and textile factories visible over the built-up rock ledges around the quarry. Growing up in industrial Indiana in the 70s and 80s meat you thought more about how you shouldn’t drive a Japanese car to the mills for your summer job, than about mercury build-up in rainbow trout in the lake. You were aware of both, but one had a more immediate impact on your life. You just avoided eating fish, which was easier than fixing where angry steel guys would key your side panels or maybe even bust up your Subaru entirely.

Then I moved to New York for college, and I thought about water mostly as an infrastructure issue. News reports during hot summers would mention the Central Park Reservoir being at low levels. Professor Seymour Melman told his students about how water main breaks used to be front page news, and now they happened so often they were seldom covered at all. I distinctly remember that Prof. Melman said that one of the main pumps that directed fresh water from the Hudson River to the thirsty mouths of New Yorkers hasn’t been turned off in over twenty (or fifty) years. Everyone knew the pump was likely in desperate need of maintenance, but the fear was that the utility people would be unable to turn the pump back on again. It sounded like driving a really old used car: you listen constantly to the plinks and pings, convinced that the next one is going to be the death knell of the car.

Then, in the mid-90s, my Dad thought about betting involved in a business dedicated to building portable water purification units. Basically, the way most portable water purification systems work is by using UV light to sterilize and carbon filters. The company was going to build and market backpack sized units for used in extreme conditions -- like rain forest expeditions. With these units, you can pretty much dump sewage into one end and get clean water out the other. That’s an overstatement, but not by much.

And then I’ve gone to Burning Man the last couple of years. For me, one of the most interesting parts of that experience was the ability to create this temporary city in pretty extreme conditions. The lack of water in the Black Rock Desert is the most obvious problem, even compared to the dust storms and the heat and all the hippie drum circles.

In the last few months, I’ve been living in Florida, and this interest has crystallized into a plan: start working on water issues for a living. Frankly, I’m too old to want to start over from scratch and do the pure science. It feels like it would take too long to catch up to those who have been doing it for years already. And I also have 15 years of experience in communications and research that I don’t think should be thrown away. Toward that end, I am looking at graduate schools which have good Environmental policy programs.

While I do that, I’m reading extensively about water issues, and I figure to start posting about them on this here journal. I’ll post a few I have stored up in a bit. And later today, I think I might write some about lawns.